Our New Home: The Chronicle

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Who leaves a blog hanging for two years in cyberspace? People who have had to do a lot of re-prioritizing over the last two years, I suppose. You'll forgive us, we hope.

Since we last posted, we finished staining the miles of baseboard in our house, completed (and rented!) the bachelor apartment in the basement, built a beautiful raised vegetable garden in the backyard, and yes, even managed to park the car in the garage. When I say we, I mostly mean John.

This video, produced by our builder, shows the final product. What can we say? We love the place.

While we were tiling a couple of months ago (still ongoing, if you can believe it), we had a little snack on the rooftop patio. It wasn't finished yet, but we still enjoyed getting some fresh air on the roof. The photo on the right shows the rooftop patio as it is now. From there we will be able to see the fireworks over Parliament Hill on Canada Day, and the international fireworks competition in Hull. We can't wait!

Our kitchen is almost complete; only a single cabinet and our countertops remain. It's hard to get a photo of the whole kitchen from any angle, but here's an attempt. We love everything about this kitchen; it turned out even better than we had hoped. We especially love the stacked cabinets to the ceiling (no place for dust!) and the pull-out pot drawer in the peninsula. Oh, and the 36-inch cooktop, too. And the dishwasher. Okay, all of it.

Less than a week after they were removed, our stairs were safely returned to us. They now meet code, and are as beautiful as they were when they left. We are now only waiting for the maple handrail; once those are on, the stairs will be 100% complete. (The handrail in the photo is temporary.)

When the copper sink we bought on our honeymoon in Montreal was put in, it felt like things really started taking shape. We kept that sink in a bag in our apartment for about five months, waiting for the time to come when it would be installed. The powder room is now almost ready for visitors — the box of cleaning materials in the photo has been removed, and all the regular bathroom accessories have been installed, including a great round mirror, a toilet paper holder, a hand towel rack and lights. It's amazing how much a toilet paper holder makes a room look like a real room.

While our stairs leading to our bedroom were gone, we spent a few nights camped out in our house, moving from spot to spot as work progressed on the second floor. We still managed to have some good meals, though. (If you look closely in the right-hand photo, you can see a real sign of the wilderness: Tammo, our pet bunny!) That photo still makes me laugh.